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Finding Aid to the Louisiana Papers, 1767-1816
BANC MSS M-M 508
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Collection Title: Louisiana Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1767-1816
Collection Number: BANC MSS M-M 508
Extent:
Number of containers: 5 boxes, 16 volumes and 1 oversize folder
Microfilm reels: 5 reels (2204 exposures) : negative (Rich. 403:14-18) and positive
Repository: The Bancroft Library.
Berkeley, California 94720-6000
Physical Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please
consult the Library's online catalog.
Abstract: This collection of papers consists of correspondence, reports, printed pamphlets,
and broadsides relating to Louisiana after its occupation by Spain. The Louisiana territory comprised
the Lower Mississippi River Valley, upstream to St. Louis and the Illinois country, as well as West
Florida and the Texas and Arkansas area.
Much of the correspondence is that of the Spanish governors or lieutenant governors with their superiors in Spain, as well as with local commandants of remote trading posts, Indian agents, squaw-men, untutored men of the border, or Indians (speaking through interpreters) The manuscripts reflect the trilingual character of the inhabitants - Spanish, French, and English - and the international conflict for possession of the lower Mississippi Valley, i.e., French Louisiana. As New Orleans was the capital of the province, most of the letters and reports are dated there, but others came from agents and correspondents throughout the entire region.
Much of the correspondence is that of the Spanish governors or lieutenant governors with their superiors in Spain, as well as with local commandants of remote trading posts, Indian agents, squaw-men, untutored men of the border, or Indians (speaking through interpreters) The manuscripts reflect the trilingual character of the inhabitants - Spanish, French, and English - and the international conflict for possession of the lower Mississippi Valley, i.e., French Louisiana. As New Orleans was the capital of the province, most of the letters and reports are dated there, but others came from agents and correspondents throughout the entire region.
Languages Represented: Collection materials are in Spanish
Collection is open for research.
Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish or
quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services. Permission for
publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft Library as the owner of the physical items and is not
intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the
reader.
[Identification of item], Louisiana papers, BANC MSS M-M 508, The Bancroft Library, University of
California, Berkeley.
These documents consist mainly of correspondence to and from the Governors and Lieutenant Governors of
Louisiana, and relate to affairs within the far-reaching province - Indians, commerce, colonization,
agriculture, American, English and French activities. A few transcripts by Pinart, taken from the
Archivos Generales de Cuba, have been included. There are also 16 volumes (photocopy of materials in
Boxes 1-5, arranged chronologically).
Originally collected by Alphonse Pinart, this group of papers was purchased by Hubert Howe Bancroft, and
comprises nos. 35081, 35074-35708, 35045 (documents from 1780-1795) in the Valencia Street Catalogue.
Most of the documents through 1794 have appeared in transcribed or translated form in Lawrence Kinnaird's
Spain in the Mississippi Valley, 1765-1794, v. 1-3 (U.S. Government Printing Office,
Washington, D. C., 1949).
The papers have been broken down into groups according to governors, with the governor's letters and
documents arranged chronologically, folllowed by an alphabetical arrangement of correspondents. All
folders have been numbered, 1 through 573.